These are not at all the same and in fact serve very different purposes.

While it is true that in certain situations, the so-called “direct” translation is not appropriate (as in advertising, for example), it is not true that all good translations are, in fact, adaptations. Actually, a good translation is NOT an adaptation. A truly good translation must remain faithful to the full context of the source text in terms of meaning, style, appearance, register, and message. The words used to convey it are just as important as the message, and while one must of course take into account what the reader will or will not understand in the target language, the translator really cannot be allowed to take “liberties” with the text. If it is directed at a particular audience and written in a particular register in the source language, it must be directed at the corresponding audience and written in the corresponding register of the target language.

An adaptation, on the other hand, takes the ideas from the original text and rewrites them in a whole new way. The source text can be modified a bit to appeal more to a new audience (ie, a different marketing industry, class, or age group, for example) or it can be placed in a different environment. Adaptations are most common in literary, poetic, or advertising media, where you may choose to forego means (form) or literal meaning in favor of conveying a particular message or emotion, if one or the other is deemed more important to the story. individual situation.

Before deciding how much adaptation is necessary, the translator must consider the purpose of the document in terms of its use and audience. For example, a letter translated for court use must say exactly what is said, with no change in message or medium. It is possible that the same letter, if it is going to be sent to a potential client or politically, for example, needs to be adapted a bit, since the format of a letter in French is often different from the format of a letter in English (different greetings, different way of signing, different way of addressing) and paragraphs can even be rearranged to focus on the same notions but in a way or order that is more engaging or persuasive in the reader’s culture, to make a sale or an ally.

The same kind of decision can be made about whether to translate or adapt a literary work. For example, “Romeo et Juliette” is a translation intended to present Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” as written, but for a French audience, while “West Side Story” is an adaptation that creates a new version of it. story, but with a twist that is meant to appeal to a music-loving 20th-century American audience, different from its 16th-century English theater counterpart. Both, however, are equally good but serve different purposes.

Most “translated” poetry is also the result of adaptation and not translation, because it is almost impossible to convey the same emotions to readers in another culture while retaining the same form and the same words as the original poem. Poetry, like advertising, is very personal and very cultural; metaphors change from culture to culture, as do stylistic preferences, which is what poetry is often about. This is not to say that poetic translations are never made, but they are extremely rare.

A related notion is that of location. This is where this concept gets tricky, because while localization often involves translation, it belongs to a very specific modern reality. Localization is the process used to tailor a product or service (typically software and websites, but can also include products that come with many manuals and accessory packages) to a desired local language, culture, and appearance. ” When localizing a product, in addition to idiomatic translation of the language, details such as time zones, currencies, national holidays, local color sensitivities, product or service names, gender roles, and geographic examples should be considered. A service or product Successfully localized is one that appears to have been developed within the local culture.(But remember that the same can often be said of a translation or an adaptation.) Localized texts include texts that may have to be produced several times in the same language, but adjusted for dialectal differences and other cultural differences (elevator vs. elevator, metric vs. imperial measurements, etc.), or texts that specifically address an area where that language is spoken (e.g., US). vs. UK, Quebec vs. France) However, this is not an adaptation, because the same content and message are generally still expressed in the same way. a, and such products are often designed to be easily localized without the need to change formatting, styling, or images.

Meanwhile, it’s not just translations of scientific and legal texts that require fidelity to the text, often called “direct” translations (note that this does not mean “word for word”). Newspaper articles must keep all the same facts and be directed to a corresponding audience in the target language community. Government documents, corporate literature, public information brochures, travel guides, textbooks, and many other types of texts must retain the same content, register, style, and format when translated, even respecting the structure, grammar and cultural background of the recipient. language. Otherwise, it no longer has a translation but has been moved to the adaptation area.

In summary, a true translation must be written in a natural and appropriate way for the target language, but that does not deviate from the essence of the source text; nothing may be added, deleted, or otherwise altered from the font. A true adaptation is a reinvention of the message to fit a new audience, be it a new language or a different age or cultural group, modern vs. earlier time, etc.